Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 3x13 - "That Hope Is You, Part 2"

[Scout101]

Finale was decent, although can't quite say they 'landed the plane' after that meandering season.

The Burn remains disappointing. Ok for a 2-part episode with limited range, but disappointing as the explanation for why it was a quadrant/multi-quadrant disaster that broke things for 100 years.

After promising the Captain won't be the focus, the Captain is now the focus

Not quite sure about the new uniforms, but glad they're changing out of the old ones, which were bad, and joining the future.

Disco may have become slightly OP. Cool that they upgraded, but now they can take sustained firepower from the rest of the fleet, with a skeleton crew of pirates manning things, and no particular issues noted? Ugh. Even with upgraded shields, should still be on par with Starfleet weapons, so 10-1 odds shouldn't favor the 1 there. Maybe a slight advantage that the old ships were tougher and made of actual metal and whatnot, but still...

HATE the turbolift/interior shot scenes (still). Action bit was fine, but WTF on thinking about how a ship works. Massive empty space, barely makes sense if this was a star base, makes less that zero sense for a starship. Thing would be beyond massive, and yet they've landed the ship on a planet, THIS season. How big do they think the ship is, again? And why would you design one with that kind of empty interior volume? Maybe that's why we see like 5 rooms, because that's all there is and the rest is empty interior volume? Why's Scotty climbing around in Jefferies Tubes when the entire frigging ship is empty space? Can't hate that aspect enough, IMO.

Good action scenes, plot moved along, well paced episode. If the rest of the season had been more like this, it would have been a home run. Instead, we got a good first couple episodes, wandered a ton, and then closed strong. Felt like enough material for about a 4-parter, and made 13 from it. Maybe next year, we'll get more of what was promised this year with the 'explore the future' concept? Unless they need to use 1/6th of the season to launch another spinoff, of course.

 

[PiotrB]

10/10 A great season-ending episode. Extra points for the promotion of Burnham, the last scene and 'Let's fly'. I was afraid that I would have to wait for such a scene until the last episode of the series. I wonder what the screenwriters will come up with for Saru next season, but whatever it is, Burnham has always been my choice so I won't mind. The new uniforms have their advantages, such as better distinguishing colours of the sections (with the old ones I couldn't often distinguish gold from bronze) and also better visibility of the ranks from the captain upwards. The small downside is that they look like they are inspired by those from Star Trek TMP but I can live with that.

 

[ScottJ85]

A very very flimsy reason

So? Inconsistent depictions of tech has been a Star Trek staple since time immemorial.

 

[Roald]

So its wrong to think this was up there with the worst Trek but absolutely fine to think its one of the best episodes ever.

I gave it a 1 and I often rate DIS harsh because I come on here after watching a mediocre episode to find 10s everywhers so I see it as a counterbalance to the DIS can do no wrong people

Nothing is 'wrong'. But giving it a 1 just to 'counterbalance' something doesn't seem fair... I gave it a 10 because the episode gave me an awesome time! I watched it in my own 'Star Trek room', with a cup of coffee, and it took me back to the early '90's, when I bought the VHS cassettes of TNG, DS9, VOY... But nostalgia aside, I thought the episode was truly amazing, and in any case, more to the side of 'good Trek' than 'bad'.. Is a 10 biased? Perhaps... But I gave it because that's how I felt, not to 'counterbalance the haters who are giving 1's'...

 

[plynch]

Liked it. Clapped when they appeared in their starfleet suits to the Kelpian dude. Very Star Trek, that.

 

[Tirius]

I'm going with a solid 8 this time. We're dancing around the plot holes again, but I was positively surprised by the way the episode managed to wrap up a lot of storylines in one going without it feeling either forced or crammed in for time.

The good:

• Again, a bit more of an ensemble piece. It's the small decisions like giving Gray a body to properly meet Culber and having Owosekun be the one to complete the bridge crew's mission rather than Tilly that shows the secondary characters are continuing to gain ground in terms of development. More please.
• The connection between Saru and Su'kal was amazingly done. While I lament it means we might be missing Saru (a bit?) going forward, I had no issues with his choosing to go help Su'kal resettle on Kaminar, knowing how much his world and his people mean to him as well. It fits with his character.
• I actually grew to appreciate some of the points I was critical of in earlier episodes. Like Su'kal being the cause of the Burn. Yes, the biology remains strange. But tying the event to him losing his mother, one of the most traumatic experiences one can have, made it more believable for me. That scene was done very well, and I started to care for the character during this episode. Likewise, the odd floating nacelle tech was actually integrated into the plot. Still weird, but I can appreciate the effort made to have it count for something. Even Tilly being put in command made it much easier for Burnham to take over from her upon her return. Go figure, I actually enjoyed that moment where Tilly made it an order.
• Vance and Burnham finding common ground. Dangit, what's with Discovery and making us care for the admirals?
  
• Ending on a message of hope. They went to the effort to have the actors who played Sahil and the leaders of Trill and Vulcan come back for it, even if it was only for a very brief moment. I actually also liked Burnham's ending speech. Maybe it's 2020 making me feel more susceptible to it, but it works for me.

On the fence:

• Writing off Osyraa. I think given where the story went with its ending, making sure she was no longer a threat fit with that. However, her conflict with Vance last week showed there might be potential for more depth with her, and thus potential to have the character continue forward.
• Book being able to operate the spore drive. A bit convenient and sudden, but I'll buy it.
• Stamets having little to do beyond being carted off and being angry for it. He was never an easy-to-get-along-with character though, so reserving judgment to see where it goes. And we did need him off the ship for the rest of the story to work.
• The new uniforms. I'm not sure the light grey goes as well with the dark Discovery interior sets as it did with the bright HQ.
• Reusing the TOS music over the credits. Disco should be able to stand on its own after 3 seasons. Yes, it is iconic, but the series has its own theme that it should feel fine about using.

The bad:

• The turbolift fight and its visuals. This made me feel like this was orginally planned to take place aboard Starfleet HQ. No way is Discovery that big and cavernous on the inside. Burnham also felt a bit like an action figure, given what she did while already injured.
• There might have been an option to cut down on the fight sequences overall, including the ship battle inside HQ. It feels a bit weird that the dated, if upgraded, Discovery is able to hold its own against the entire taskforce of ships in there, even if we assume some are occupied trying to keep the shield up against the Viridian's fire. Then again, eh, failing security inside government facilities seems to be a thing this week...

 

[Tim Thomason]

Nothing is 'wrong'. But giving it a 1 just to 'counterbalance' something doesn't seem fair... I gave it a 10 because the episode gave me an awesome time! I watched it in my own 'Star Trek room', with a cup of coffee, and it took me back to the early '90's, when I bought the VHS cassettes of TNG, DS9, VOY... But nostalgia aside, I thought the episode was truly amazing, and in any case, more to the side of 'good Trek' than 'bad'.. Is a 10 biased? Perhaps... But I gave it because that's how I felt, not to 'counterbalance the haters who are giving 1's'...

A 1 is a fair counterbalance, if only to the one poster who constantly rates every episode a 10 before it even airs. They're the worst.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

So? Inconsistent depictions of tech has been a Star Trek staple since time immemorial.

Ya but giant city sized spaces in a ship is up there with the space salamanders as on of the worst Trek has ever done

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

A 1 is a fair counterbalance, if only to the one poster who constantly rates every episode a 10 before it even airs. They're the worst.

Ya I was hovering round a 3 at first but seeing 40% 10s for what was just a long fight scene annoyed me too much

 

[cultcross]

I've never met such an absurd load of claptrap I enjoyed so much.

 

[XCV330]

Actually it is not. The crew was not in Turbolift alley, they were near the nacelle and in the place where the magnetic thingy was. Vacuum/Atmosphere interface is hard to maintain. The seal between vacuum and atmosphere has to be almost impenetrable by Helium, the smallest stable monatomic gas. People don't just poke in and out of vacuum.

Life support is just maintaining oxygen, not atmosphere. The Turbolifts had oxygen maintenance, the places where oxygen maintenance were not maintained did not.

(in my best haughty)
Actually.. you know.. it is not (eyebrow stuff)

They got up there via turbolift. And it's been show that getting out of the turbolift into the Turbolift Dimension or whatever the hell that is out there, especially if you have some Dots helping you out.

 

[cultcross]

Now they've solved the Burn, next season they can search for where the heck that cavernous space is inside Discovery.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I know a short season is common now for streaming shows but I feel like it did not work for Discovery this season. I think season 3 would have worked better if they had done just a couple more "filler" episodes to flesh out the world-building a bit more. For example, we could have gotten a couple more episodes to develop and build up the Emerald Chain more. Plus, we could have gotten another episode or two to show us the Klingons or the Cardassians to show us a bit more of the state of the galaxy post-burn.

 

[ThinkPanda]

I think they spent too much time on parallel universe. Could do more to explore the strange new world.

 

[Photoman15]

I think it is wrong to place your vote based on what others have voted. Vote by YOUR reaction to the episode, don't try to second-guess the other voters or don't vote JUST to negate others votes. Maybe votes should be hidden until after so many days then voting closed, then revealed.

 

[Kzinti]

they finally did it! they closed the damn shuttlebay

 

[UssGlenn]

I've never met such an absurd load of claptrap I enjoyed so much.

That about sums it up, I will forgive much if I enjoy what I'm watching.

 

[cultcross]

I think they spent too much time on parallel universe. Could do more to explore the strange new world.

Yes it was strange to bring the crew to a brand new 'universe' narratively only to waste two of your thirteen episodes returning to a different universe you'd already seen.

 

[eschaton]

I know a short season is common now for streaming shows but I feel like it did not work for Discovery this season. I think season 3 would have worked better if they had done just a couple more "filler" episodes to flesh out the world-building a bit more. For example, we could have gotten a couple more episodes to develop and build up the Emerald Chain more. Plus, we could have gotten another episode or two to show us the Klingons or the Cardassians to show us a bit more of the state of the galaxy post-burn.

Honestly, I feel like the biggest mistake this season was the two-parter for Georgiou.

Don't get me wrong - I liked it, particularly Part 1. But the actual season arc could desperately have used those two episodes for something more relevant. They could have left Georgiou behind in the 23rd century at the end of Season 2, and basically had this two parter be the prologue to her own series (including using Discovery sets and cast) with only minimal changes.

But including it in the season effectively made a 15-episode season a 13-episode season.

 

[Timo]

But Vance said to hit them harder.

Which sort of confirms that they were holding back originally. And also suggests that they still aren't allowed to go all out.

Timo Saloniemi